I'll admit it, I was having some fun with my new phone - as much as I love my DSLR, it doesn't allow me to take pictures from this up close and somewhat distorted.
This is definitively one of my favorite Shade pictures - it's too funny!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
She puts a smile on my face
I'll admit it, I was having some fun with my new phone - as much as I love my DSLR, it doesn't allow me to take pictures from this up close and somewhat distorted.
This is definitively one of my favorite Shade pictures - it's too funny!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Better late than never! A T4W order
Danita has done it again! She's made some wonderful toys that seem too pretty to give to the birds to be destroyed - but they will, if only because that will allow me to purchase more!
As for the title of this post, it has to do with "collection" some of the toys I received today are from - the Fall and Halloween collections. It seems a bit late, specially when it comes to the Halloween one, but it's not like the birds would know or care!
This first one is called "Harvest Moon". I found it very neat and I might have it hanging outside cages as I'm sure it will please more than one bird.
This is the "Pumpkin Pants" - no longer on the website. I couldn't pass it as it's somewhat named after Léa (it is a nickname Danita gave Léa). And because of it, it will go to the baby Cape.
Another toy for Léa - this one is called "Lola's toy" and was designed for another Cape. Just seeing all the pieces of beads and hardwoods and knowing Léa would LOVE it all, I couldn't resist adding it to my cart.
As for what follows - the cherished cottonwood and willow coins having become very hard to find, I've been hoarding what was left of my stock, only giving it out little by little. I figured it was time to find replacement wood coins, as I will eventually run dry. I've got some dogwood, some mulberry, some manzanita and some red willow coins to try out with the flock.
I also got some flat wheel beads, some grapevine hunks (mostly for Léa but maybe the little ones will attempt to destroy it too)as well as some "Slickety Sticks".
Finally, there was also a gift for Léa in the box. This time, it was from my friend Laura who also has a flock of Pois! Thanks Laura!
Now to get some of the toys from the many Winter/Holiday inspired collections currently on Things for Wings - and I'm feeling really tempted to get one of each of the Snowmen collection!
As for the title of this post, it has to do with "collection" some of the toys I received today are from - the Fall and Halloween collections. It seems a bit late, specially when it comes to the Halloween one, but it's not like the birds would know or care!
This first one is called "Harvest Moon". I found it very neat and I might have it hanging outside cages as I'm sure it will please more than one bird.
This is the "Pumpkin Pants" - no longer on the website. I couldn't pass it as it's somewhat named after Léa (it is a nickname Danita gave Léa). And because of it, it will go to the baby Cape.
Another toy for Léa - this one is called "Lola's toy" and was designed for another Cape. Just seeing all the pieces of beads and hardwoods and knowing Léa would LOVE it all, I couldn't resist adding it to my cart.
As for what follows - the cherished cottonwood and willow coins having become very hard to find, I've been hoarding what was left of my stock, only giving it out little by little. I figured it was time to find replacement wood coins, as I will eventually run dry. I've got some dogwood, some mulberry, some manzanita and some red willow coins to try out with the flock.
I also got some flat wheel beads, some grapevine hunks (mostly for Léa but maybe the little ones will attempt to destroy it too)as well as some "Slickety Sticks".
Finally, there was also a gift for Léa in the box. This time, it was from my friend Laura who also has a flock of Pois! Thanks Laura!
Now to get some of the toys from the many Winter/Holiday inspired collections currently on Things for Wings - and I'm feeling really tempted to get one of each of the Snowmen collection!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Some oddly neat birds..
..and some downright messy ones too!
Tonight, for the first time this season, I dished out some pomegranates with dinner.
This was the first time Léa got some - I *think* she liked it if I go by how messy her bowl was (not one kernel was left behind) and the fact that her feet are all red..The red feet were a result of how she ate the pomegranate kernels - she would hold them individually in her foot and juice them there!
Joey, Pixel and Zuri's bowls looked like murder scenes - red pomegranate juice e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. But they did scarf them all down.
Shade's bowl was quite neat, no seeds to be found and only a trickle or two of juice - no sense in wasting the juice, right?
Petey...this bird is just plain neat. I mean on all things, he's my least messy bird and when it came to eating pomegranates, he's no different. There was like a drop or two to be found in his bowl and no seeds to be found anywhere.
So pomegranate was a success once again, except with Piper who decided that tonight's dinner was not to his liking..
With that, they got some peas, carrots and broccoli. Peas were also all eaten in most cages, broccoli and carrots nibbled on as well.
Tonight, for the first time this season, I dished out some pomegranates with dinner.
This was the first time Léa got some - I *think* she liked it if I go by how messy her bowl was (not one kernel was left behind) and the fact that her feet are all red..The red feet were a result of how she ate the pomegranate kernels - she would hold them individually in her foot and juice them there!
Joey, Pixel and Zuri's bowls looked like murder scenes - red pomegranate juice e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. But they did scarf them all down.
Shade's bowl was quite neat, no seeds to be found and only a trickle or two of juice - no sense in wasting the juice, right?
Petey...this bird is just plain neat. I mean on all things, he's my least messy bird and when it came to eating pomegranates, he's no different. There was like a drop or two to be found in his bowl and no seeds to be found anywhere.
So pomegranate was a success once again, except with Piper who decided that tonight's dinner was not to his liking..
With that, they got some peas, carrots and broccoli. Peas were also all eaten in most cages, broccoli and carrots nibbled on as well.
Léa's Hoot Pack from CBT has arrived!
Crystal (Crystal's Bird Toys) brought over Léa's Hoot Pack today!
Léa actually was Ms. Social and was not shy in front of Crystal - I'm pretty sure Crystal might have been the first stranger Léa met since coming home with us. She did very well! The others seemed intrigued by Crystal but remained on the slightly shy side - however, Petey did grace her with a "Hi Petey" or two!
The contents of the Hoot Pack -
There were two toys of her Winter & Holiday collection:
The medium Ugly Holiday Sweater - I find the name misleading, it's actually a pretty nice/neat toy! There are almonds hiding within the pods and that is sure to drive Léa crazy..
The Snowball - I find this toy very cute!
There were also two foot toys, the Nutty Donuts and the Nutty Cupcakes.
Thank you Crystal!
Léa actually was Ms. Social and was not shy in front of Crystal - I'm pretty sure Crystal might have been the first stranger Léa met since coming home with us. She did very well! The others seemed intrigued by Crystal but remained on the slightly shy side - however, Petey did grace her with a "Hi Petey" or two!
The contents of the Hoot Pack -
There were two toys of her Winter & Holiday collection:
The medium Ugly Holiday Sweater - I find the name misleading, it's actually a pretty nice/neat toy! There are almonds hiding within the pods and that is sure to drive Léa crazy..
The Snowball - I find this toy very cute!
There were also two foot toys, the Nutty Donuts and the Nutty Cupcakes.
Thank you Crystal!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Oliver's Garden Prize and more!
I recently came in second in a photo contest on Avian Avenue, which was sponsored by Oliver's Garden. The theme was "Making Waves" and I entered a picture of wet Léa sitting on her Oliver's Garden anchor swing.
The prize was a mini crawler (small or large depending on the winning bird's size) as well as appropriate toys. Of all the contests I've seen on Avian Avenue, this was the ONE I wanted to win.
Sadly, it wasn't so. However, Susan showed us once more how generous she would be by offering $30 and $20 gift certificates to the second and third place winners as well as offering 10% off all orders made by everyone who entered into the competition before the end of October.
What did I end up getting with my prize money? Well since the picture was of Léa, it was going to be on a toy for her. And I've been tempted for a while to get the Ruby toy so I did..
Oliver's Garden "Ruby" toy
I knew it was going to be big but..wow! It's HUGE! Léa was out of her cage when I got my box so I showed the toy to her and she was very very interested in it! In fact, she seemed to want to chip at the blocks right away but I stopped her since I hadn't taken a picture of Ruby at that point.
Knowing how badly I wanted to win, specifically for the net portion of the prize, the Boy offered to get one for me. So he did - he purchased a large mini crawler.
Oliver's Garden Large Mini Crawler
I haven't figured out quite yet where I'll hang it, but obviously wanted it up for the picture. Léa also got to try it and she LOVED it - she climbed all over it and did not want to come off. I've been thinking for a while that I wanted to get a full size crawler when I'll have the space - now I definitively will!
Léa on her Large Mini Crawler
The Boy also got a few more things for the birds; one can be seen on the crawler pictures - the multicoloured fish known as the Rainbow Trout Jr. - as well as an Intermediate Anchor.
Oliver's Garden Rainbow Trout Jr. & Intermediate Anchor
In between the order having been put in and it being shipped, I received a previous Oliver's Garden order, the one with my Skywalk for Léa. Since I was so happy with it and thinking the smaller Pois might enjoy something similar but on a smaller scale, I asked Susan if she could make one. It was included in this order and I cannot express how happy I am with it - it is gorgeous! I honestly don't know if I can put it in Joey's cage, at least not right away, as it was intended for him and he's one of the best chewers and it's just too pretty to be destroyed quickly!
Oliver's Garden Skywalk Perch
Finally, I got a few freebies, some of which are sporting Holiday colours.
The prize was a mini crawler (small or large depending on the winning bird's size) as well as appropriate toys. Of all the contests I've seen on Avian Avenue, this was the ONE I wanted to win.
Sadly, it wasn't so. However, Susan showed us once more how generous she would be by offering $30 and $20 gift certificates to the second and third place winners as well as offering 10% off all orders made by everyone who entered into the competition before the end of October.
What did I end up getting with my prize money? Well since the picture was of Léa, it was going to be on a toy for her. And I've been tempted for a while to get the Ruby toy so I did..
Oliver's Garden "Ruby" toy
I knew it was going to be big but..wow! It's HUGE! Léa was out of her cage when I got my box so I showed the toy to her and she was very very interested in it! In fact, she seemed to want to chip at the blocks right away but I stopped her since I hadn't taken a picture of Ruby at that point.
Knowing how badly I wanted to win, specifically for the net portion of the prize, the Boy offered to get one for me. So he did - he purchased a large mini crawler.
Oliver's Garden Large Mini Crawler
I haven't figured out quite yet where I'll hang it, but obviously wanted it up for the picture. Léa also got to try it and she LOVED it - she climbed all over it and did not want to come off. I've been thinking for a while that I wanted to get a full size crawler when I'll have the space - now I definitively will!
Léa on her Large Mini Crawler
The Boy also got a few more things for the birds; one can be seen on the crawler pictures - the multicoloured fish known as the Rainbow Trout Jr. - as well as an Intermediate Anchor.
Oliver's Garden Rainbow Trout Jr. & Intermediate Anchor
In between the order having been put in and it being shipped, I received a previous Oliver's Garden order, the one with my Skywalk for Léa. Since I was so happy with it and thinking the smaller Pois might enjoy something similar but on a smaller scale, I asked Susan if she could make one. It was included in this order and I cannot express how happy I am with it - it is gorgeous! I honestly don't know if I can put it in Joey's cage, at least not right away, as it was intended for him and he's one of the best chewers and it's just too pretty to be destroyed quickly!
Oliver's Garden Skywalk Perch
Finally, I got a few freebies, some of which are sporting Holiday colours.
What do you do when the power is out?
Other than make foot toys for the birds?
You take pictures!
The one shot I had of Petey didn't really turn out and he chose to spend his time glued to the Boy. Here are the others though!
You take pictures!
The one shot I had of Petey didn't really turn out and he chose to spend his time glued to the Boy. Here are the others though!
Friday, November 4, 2011
34 hours later..
These past two days have been interesting to say the least.
A little over a week ago we got a notice in our building that on November 3rd, power was going to be cut out from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm. You read that right, a whole 12 hours. I had made arrangements at work that would allow me to stay home that day so that if it got too cold, I could bring the birds out and go somewhere with heating. I wasn't entirely too concerned since we've been having a mild November so far.
So Thursday morning the Boy got up and cranked the heating in the birdroom and the living room so that it could be as warm as possible before power got cut out. We also kept 3 sides of the cages covered so that the birds would still have some form of protection if it got cooler.
All went well until 8:30 pm came along...we still had no electricity. Sent the Boy downstairs to get a status update and he came back with bleak news - we probably wouldn't have power until around midnight. I got out extra blankets and proceeded to add a layer of protection to the cages, just in case. It's one thing to have the sun, although there wasn't much of it to be honest, help heat up the place during the day, it did get quite cool in the evening.
Being tired, I headed to bed early while the Boy stayed up until midnight..and indeed the power returned. But it was brief. I woke up around 3 am and everything was off again by then and based on how some items charged up during that brief time, we had electricity it seems for less than 2 hours.
Come Friday morning. The apartment felt a little chilly although it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We waited for the sun to rise and start heating up the apartment and let the birds out. We didn't need to wake them up - they were making plenty of noises while still covered so I guess they were fine. They did seem happier once they were able to be in the sunlight though.
Whatever the problems encountered by the ones doing work, it seemed to just get worse and worse - when trying to figure out what happened and why we still were without electricity, we were told that they had no idea when power would return. Joy. Later on, probably annoyed with tenants that kept coming to inquire about what was happening, building managers started broadcasting messages through the PA system - it's worth noting that we initially thought that on top of everything, we were going to be faced with a fire alarm as the sound used to turn the PA system on has up until today always been heard as a precursor to fire alarms..
The messages brought the news that the workers were hopeful that we would get power back by 6pm..and that was fairly accurate, although it was closer to 6:30pm.
I don't think I ever have been so happy to hear beeps of things turning on and getting light when flipping a switch!
I also took this occasion, since it was easy to get pretty bored, to make some foot toys. Lots and lots of foot toys. There are 130 toys in these pictures. If we consider that each could be sold at $1.50 each, I saved $195 - which is more than what I paid for my last HUGE shipment of beads! And estimating that each toy has 5 beads (a very small number had other pieces of wood), I strung up 650 beads over two days! Actually it's a little more than that since Léa stole a few strings while I was working on them with her next to me..
I also took a few pictures of the birds this morning and might post some later.
A little over a week ago we got a notice in our building that on November 3rd, power was going to be cut out from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm. You read that right, a whole 12 hours. I had made arrangements at work that would allow me to stay home that day so that if it got too cold, I could bring the birds out and go somewhere with heating. I wasn't entirely too concerned since we've been having a mild November so far.
So Thursday morning the Boy got up and cranked the heating in the birdroom and the living room so that it could be as warm as possible before power got cut out. We also kept 3 sides of the cages covered so that the birds would still have some form of protection if it got cooler.
All went well until 8:30 pm came along...we still had no electricity. Sent the Boy downstairs to get a status update and he came back with bleak news - we probably wouldn't have power until around midnight. I got out extra blankets and proceeded to add a layer of protection to the cages, just in case. It's one thing to have the sun, although there wasn't much of it to be honest, help heat up the place during the day, it did get quite cool in the evening.
Being tired, I headed to bed early while the Boy stayed up until midnight..and indeed the power returned. But it was brief. I woke up around 3 am and everything was off again by then and based on how some items charged up during that brief time, we had electricity it seems for less than 2 hours.
Come Friday morning. The apartment felt a little chilly although it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We waited for the sun to rise and start heating up the apartment and let the birds out. We didn't need to wake them up - they were making plenty of noises while still covered so I guess they were fine. They did seem happier once they were able to be in the sunlight though.
Whatever the problems encountered by the ones doing work, it seemed to just get worse and worse - when trying to figure out what happened and why we still were without electricity, we were told that they had no idea when power would return. Joy. Later on, probably annoyed with tenants that kept coming to inquire about what was happening, building managers started broadcasting messages through the PA system - it's worth noting that we initially thought that on top of everything, we were going to be faced with a fire alarm as the sound used to turn the PA system on has up until today always been heard as a precursor to fire alarms..
The messages brought the news that the workers were hopeful that we would get power back by 6pm..and that was fairly accurate, although it was closer to 6:30pm.
I don't think I ever have been so happy to hear beeps of things turning on and getting light when flipping a switch!
I also took this occasion, since it was easy to get pretty bored, to make some foot toys. Lots and lots of foot toys. There are 130 toys in these pictures. If we consider that each could be sold at $1.50 each, I saved $195 - which is more than what I paid for my last HUGE shipment of beads! And estimating that each toy has 5 beads (a very small number had other pieces of wood), I strung up 650 beads over two days! Actually it's a little more than that since Léa stole a few strings while I was working on them with her next to me..
I also took a few pictures of the birds this morning and might post some later.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Pretty Shade
She likes posing..
Was turning around on this one.. (check out the feet)
Senegal backside..
..and back to showing her elegant orange/yellow vest.
Was turning around on this one.. (check out the feet)
Senegal backside..
..and back to showing her elegant orange/yellow vest.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Cape close-up
These are from early October - going through some backlog! Trying to keep the blog posts at one a day so that the end result is 365 posts for the year can be tricky some time!
Oh and we got some good news this morning! Turns out Léa is the November Hoot Pack winner (or is it September/October?..it doesn't manner, we won!) at Crystal's Bird Toys! Not sure what the prize will entail - it's a surprise!
Oh and we got some good news this morning! Turns out Léa is the November Hoot Pack winner (or is it September/October?..it doesn't manner, we won!) at Crystal's Bird Toys! Not sure what the prize will entail - it's a surprise!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
If the Boy heard it...
..then it must be true!
Léa said her name!
Amongst the usual greetings of "Hi Petey's" and "Hi Joey's" that are heard, often on a loop, as we enter our apartment, there was a loud "Léa".
I wasn't sure, but the boyfriend pointed it out as well without me saying anything...and if he heard it, than it's very likely that she did indeed say her name!
Léa said her name!
Amongst the usual greetings of "Hi Petey's" and "Hi Joey's" that are heard, often on a loop, as we enter our apartment, there was a loud "Léa".
I wasn't sure, but the boyfriend pointed it out as well without me saying anything...and if he heard it, than it's very likely that she did indeed say her name!
The birds enjoying an Oliver's Garden Toy
I initially thought it would be the best fit for Léa given it's size, but she was only mildly interested in it..
(it's definitively NOT as appealing as forbidden stuff...)
So I figured I'd try with the smaller guys.
Obviously the size did not matter at all..
Nice preening toy!
But the one who enjoyed it the most was Joey!
Crazy look and lots of tongue action!
Toy surfing!
(it's definitively NOT as appealing as forbidden stuff...)
So I figured I'd try with the smaller guys.
Obviously the size did not matter at all..
Nice preening toy!
But the one who enjoyed it the most was Joey!
Crazy look and lots of tongue action!
Toy surfing!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
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